SAP (NYSE:SAP) Cut to Hold at Zacks Research

Zacks Research downgraded shares of SAP (NYSE:SAP) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on SAP. Weiss Ratings raised shares of SAP from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Santander upgraded SAP to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating on shares of SAP in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Arete Research raised SAP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Barclays set a $283.00 price target on SAP in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $305.75.

SAP Trading Up 1.3%

SAP stock opened at $202.09 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $218.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $244.66. The company has a market capitalization of $248.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.18. SAP has a 52 week low of $187.93 and a 52 week high of $313.28.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The software maker reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $11.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.77 billion. SAP had a net margin of 19.92% and a return on equity of 16.54%. The company’s revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.40 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that SAP will post 6.55 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of SAP

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in SAP by 15.2% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 53,410 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $14,272,000 after acquiring an additional 7,066 shares during the last quarter. Seaview Investment Managers LLC increased its stake in SAP by 191.4% during the third quarter. Seaview Investment Managers LLC now owns 11,744 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,138,000 after acquiring an additional 7,714 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in SAP by 59.0% during the second quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 34,046 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $10,353,000 after acquiring an additional 12,637 shares during the last quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. raised its position in SAP by 9.7% in the third quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 139,273 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $37,215,000 after purchasing an additional 12,268 shares during the period. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its stake in shares of SAP by 118.9% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 115,679 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $30,911,000 after purchasing an additional 62,842 shares during the last quarter.

SAP Company Profile

SAP SE is a global enterprise software company headquartered in Walldorf, Germany. Founded in 1972 by five former IBM engineers, the company’s name is an acronym for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung (Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing). SAP develops and sells software and services that help organizations manage business processes across finance, human resources, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain and customer relationships.

SAP’s product portfolio spans on‑premises and cloud offerings, anchored by its enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions such as SAP S/4HANA and the SAP HANA in‑memory database and platform.